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Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has raised his target for investment across Africa to $60 billion by 2030, as he broke ground on a $2.5 billion fuel storage hub and pipeline project in Namibia.
Dangote announced the higher target on Wednesday at a ceremony outside Walvis Bay, Namibia’s main port, attended by President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. The new goal is 20% above the $50 billion target he set earlier, according to Bloomberg and Nairametrics.
He has already moved quickly toward the original figure. Dangote’s group has announced more than $35 billion in infrastructure investments this year, nearly three-quarters of the $50 billion goal.
“We also put our money on the table, it’s not just about saying things,” Dangote said, adding that an even bigger investment program will follow from 2030 to 2035.
The Namibia project is the latest step in that push. The Dangote Namibia Tank Farm and Regional Pipeline Project will include a storage facility near Walvis Bay holding about 600 million liters of fuel, made up of 360 million liters of diesel and 240 million liters of gasoline. That is roughly eight times the 75 million liters held at Namibia’s national oil storage facility, according to The Rio Times.
Construction of the storage hub is expected to take no more than 18 months. Meanwhile, a planned regional pipeline of about 1,700 kilometers would carry fuel inland toward Botswana and South Africa, with possible links to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The route and timetable for the pipeline have not been fixed.
Dangote said the aim is to cut fuel costs for landlocked countries in the region. “We want to invest heavily so that landlocked countries can access petroleum products at cheaper prices,” he said, according to a statement on the launch.
Nandi-Ndaitwah described the launch as “the most memorable day of my presidency,” and said the project will strengthen regional energy security and deepen economic integration in Southern Africa.
Billionaires.Africa reported on Wednesday that Dangote was set to join the Namibian president at the launch. The final cost and scope announced at the ceremony are significantly larger than earlier estimates for the tank farm alone, which a Namibian source had put at about $140 million.
The project builds on a wave of regional expansion. Last month, Dangote unveiled plans for a petroleum distribution network across East, Central and Southern Africa as part of the $50 billion program. He has also outlined plans for an undersea fuel pipeline from Nigeria to Ghana.
At home, his refinery in Lagos processes about 650,000 barrels per day, and the group plans to raise capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day within three years. Billionaires.Africa reported on Thursday that the refinery is set to list in December at a valuation of about $48 billion.
As a result, Namibia now sits at the southern end of a fuel network that Dangote hopes will stretch across much of the continent.
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